


For Science

by Anotherrosebyanothername



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2018-11-08 15:45:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11084763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anotherrosebyanothername/pseuds/Anotherrosebyanothername
Summary: Beatrice needs Benedick to kiss her. For science. The only problem is, now she can't stop thinking about it.





	1. Chapter 1

“I need you to kiss me.”

Ben had no response to that other than to look utterly confused. He had good reason though. He was minding his own business, reading under a tree, when an obviously frustrated Beatrice huffed up to him. He was expecting her to begin yelling at him for something he did earlier, not ask him to kiss her. And he was definitely not expecting a tiny part of him to find the demanding way she said it really hot. So his only valid response was just to stare at her and mutter, “what?”

“Are you going to make me repeat myself, dickface? I said, I need you to--”

“Yes, yes, I know what you said,” he interrupted, in hopes of suppressing that tiny part of him, “and I’m very flattered, but may I ask why?”

“Hero was teasing me about never kissing anyone, and she’s right, I haven’t. And technically there is no way for me to win the argument unless I kiss someone.”

Ben stood up so he could look at her. “So you want to kiss me...so that you can win an argument? How fittingly Beatrice of you.”

“What does that even mean?!”

“That you want your first kiss to be because you want to win an argument? Come on, it is just the epitome of what you would do. It combines your anti-relationship thing along with your I’m-Beatrice-and-I’m-always-right attitude.”

“Well it’s not like there’s anyone else I can go to! What other guys do we know? Balth? Claud? Robbie? Yuck.”

“Why wouldn’t you just ask Pedro? Your good friend Pedro, remember? All ‘round great guy?”

“You mean you don’t know? I assumed he would tell you given how close you two are.”

“Know? Know what?”

“It’s not important.”

“This is ridiculous. And there is absolutely no way I will help you if I at least don’t know why on earth you would choose me, whom you feel the need to mention you hate by the hour, over Pedro, BFF, sure to help anyone out.”

“Pedro, kinda...sorta...askedmeoutlastweek. And I laughed in his face. And now he won’t look at me. But that has nothing to do with it! You’re just trying to avoid the question!”

“Well it wasn’t exactly a question, you literally just marched up here and told me to kiss you. Like I would ever let my lips get anywhere near you.” He began to sit back down.

“No! Come on, there has to be something that I could do in exchange! Do your physics homework for you or something!”

“No! Beatrice, we hate each other! Why are we even having this conversation?”

“I just think that Hero is probably right. I don’t want to date anyone, and I am planning on dying an old maid, but I don’t want to go my whole life without kissing anyone.”

“Wow, admitting that someone else is right. You truly are desperate. I guess there is something you could do for me…”

“What is it? I could really use the favor.”

“Promote my YouTube channel.”

“What?!”

“Promote my channel, on your channel. It’s not hard. All you have to say is, ‘Go check out these videos made by my mate Ben! They’re much better and way more entertaining than mine are!”

“I will not promote your shitty YouTube channel about bird killing. Wouldn’t want anyone to think I’m condoning violence.”

“Well, deal’s off then.”

“No! Please. How about I just owe you one? Any time you choose, anything you need.”

Ben thought for a moment, and eventually a wide smile spread over his face. “Fine then. You owe me. Now, how exactly did you want to do this?” He asked, getting up off the ground again and brushing off the back of his shorts.

“Uh…” Bea hadn’t really thought this part out. She hadn’t really thought any of it out actually.

They were standing a few feet away from each other, now completely unsure of what to do. Ben took the initiative and stepped up to her so they were closer. He was taller than she was, but not so much so that she had to crane her neck to look up at him. 

“What are you…” Bea started, but she couldn’t finish her sentence.

“Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but the whole point is to kiss, right? To do that, we kind of need to be in close proximity.”

“Right, yeah, right. What am I supposed to do with my arms?” She flailed her arms around to illustrate. She didn’t really want to reach out and just touch him, that seemed wrong. But she didn’t want her arms to just lay limp at her sides; that was weird.

“Sssh. Just, stop waving your arms around,” he forced them back at her side, “and it will be fine. I’m going to put my hands on your waist, okay?” From Beatrice’s point of view, he was being surprisingly kind and gentle. But Ben was as clueless as she was. They were standing so close...and for some reason his voice was getting stuck in his throat. He placed his hands on her waist, and she could feel the heat from his hands, as well as the heat from her cheeks. Bea tossed her head back in embarrassment, “Ugh! Sorry, I just don’t…” her eyes trailed back to his. His eyes that she had never noticed were such a nice shade of blue.

“Beatrice, it’s fine. You were the one who wanted to do this, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry. I promise I’m ready now.” But she didn’t move. She didn’t know how to. This was her first kiss, and she was standing really close to Benedick, and she felt suddenly shy. But feeling shy was ridiculous. She reminded herself that this didn’t mean anything, she was just doing this to prove Hero wrong. Just as she was about to lean in, Ben started leaning towards her. 

Before she knew it his lips were on hers and her panicked instincts told her to close her eyes. It was nothing like she had expected. His lips were soft, and she was weirdly surprised to find it pleasant. Of course kissing was nice, people wouldn’t do it all the time if it wasn’t, but she didn’t exactly know what it would be like. And it was nice. In books they always say the kiss tastes like something, like mint, or chocolate, but it didn’t. Probably because that was something that happened in the making out stage with tongue. Which was definitely not in use. All she had was her sense of touch. She totally understands now that the lips are the most sensitive part of the body. Her top lip was placed in between his lips, but her lips were smaller than his, so their lips were still lined up at the bottom. 

Too soon she was registering that it had been a few seconds, and that they were kissing purely for science, and it would be weird to continue much longer. Luckily, they pulled away at the same time, so it wasn’t awkward. But they got a look at each other and remembered who they had been kissing. 

It couldn’t have been more than three seconds, but it felt like it had been an eternity.

She wasn’t sure exactly what to do, so she just stepped out of his hands, which had stayed on either side of her hips, and mumbled out a simple, “Uh, thanks.” Her fight or flight instinct kicked in and it was telling her completely to get as far away as possible. “I, uh, let you get back to your book,” is all that she managed to get out as she stumbled away.

\----------

Even though the entire point of that kiss was to win her argument with Hero, to prove that she was fully capable of kissing a guy, she didn’t tell her about the kiss with Ben. She didn’t know why not, but it just felt wrong.

What felt even more wrong was the fact that when she was trying to sleep that night, she couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. Despite her insistence to put it out of her mind, the moment kept drifting back to her. How could a few second so pervasively affect her?

She kept replaying the moment in her mind, imagining the feather-soft touch of his lips...NO! This was Benedick she was thinking about. She was not obsessing over Benedick Hobbes. 

But it kept happening. At random times, like when she was fixing breakfast. At times when her mind was easily subject to wandering, like sitting through boring lectures or before falling asleep. At particularly embarrassing times like in the shower, or when he was sitting right next to her in class. At these times she could feel her cheeks getting hotter just at the idea. 

She stopped resisting thinking about it. She refused to believe it had something to do with Ben though. She just discovered that she was fond of kissing. And why wouldn’t she be? She was a teenager, she had hormones. Of course she liked kissing. It had nothing to do with Benedick. She would have felt this way if she had kissed anyone. 

And yet...she felt like avoiding him. She didn’t like what her stomach was doing when she was around him. When their hands brushed in physics, she swore she could feel her skin tingling. After two weeks, she felt like it was getting ridiculous. She had to put all of this silliness out of her mind. Nothing with her and Benedick had changed. He was still an ass, they still hated each other, and there was no need for her to avoid him any more than she normally would to avoid his dumb comments. 

That’s what she put her mind to, that’s what was going to happen.

Or at least that’s what she thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hero confronts Bea, and Bea and Ben have a moment in class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I completely rewrote this chapter and nixed the fake dating thing. This version is less realistic, but also a whole lot funnier and original hopefully.

Beatrice was still thinking about it. It was getting obsessive at this point. It was one kiss. It only lasted a few seconds. And she was still telling herself that it had nothing to do with Benedick.

Just to be on the safe side, she avoided talking to him; and it didn’t seem to be much of a problem. They still ate lunch in their big group, but she didn’t talk to him. He (thank god) didn’t try to initiate conversation either. The one time they began an argument on the book they were reading in English, they quickly dropped the subject; much to the confusion of everyone else.

That was the thing, they were doing fine, but everyone else was starting to notice. No one had ever seen Bea or Ben this quite. Bea was hoping that they would get away with it for at least a week before anyone started asking questions. That would give her enough time to get back to feeling normal.

She was not that lucky. After three days Hero of all people was the first one to broach the subject. Thankfully, she had the tact to do it in private. Bea was sitting on Hero’s bed, editing her latest vlog, when Hero sprang it out of the blue.

“You and Ben have been acting weird lately.”

“Well, Ben the Dick is always acting weird, so I don’t see how that’s a change,” she deflected.

“You won’t talk to him.” It seemed Hero was not going to drop it easily.

“I don’t normally talk to him.”

“No, you normally yell at him. But you’ve been completely silent. No arguments, no jabs at each other’s YouTube channels. You haven’t even complained about him for days now.”

“Wow, sorry I’m trying to be a more mature person.”

“Bea, do you like Ben?”

“What?!” Bea was horrified. She didn’t think Hero was going to come to that conclusion. “That’s ridiculous!”

“Is it? You’ve been acting like a girl around her crush.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, avoiding his glance, but then secretly smiling to yourself a minute later. Refusing to talk to him.”

“Absolutely not. Sorry to disappoint you, but that is so not what’s going on.”

“Then what is going on?”

Bea had to think fast. She couldn’t very well tell Hero about the kiss. The excellent kiss. The feather-light kiss that left her wanting more. Ugh! This is why she couldn’t tell Hero, she would totally jump on it and just say it justified her disgusting idea that she might like Ben. “We got into an argument about who could go longer without fighting with the other. The next person to start any debate or argument loses.”

Oh, that was good. Nice job, Bea. And Hero seemed to buy it too.

“Oh, okay. That makes sense I guess.”

Well, sort of buy it. Enough. And that was good enough for now. Beatrice made a pact to herself that she would start acting like a normal human being the next day at school. 

\----------

She was doing an excellent job of acting normal. She got through stats perfectly. She smiled when they made eye contact, made two sarcastic comments to him during class, and completely ignored him the rest of the time. Besides the fact she stared at the back of his head admiring the way his hair was sticking out at all angles. But that didn’t involve interacting with him, so as far as Bea was concerned, she did great.

Then they got to English. They were reading this Marlow comedy about confused lovers and magic, and every day the teacher drew names out of a jar to see who would read different parts. They were at the end of the play, and Beatrice had only read for a minor part once, so she was pretty sure her name was back in jar. She wasn’t opposed to reading, but she just didn’t want to read for the main character. She was a flighty girl whose only focus was some boy she had only known for a few weeks. But of course, that was what she got drawn to read for.

And it was just her luck that of all people, Benedick, was selected to play her “one true love.” The teacher made them sit next to each other, and Bea could feel the heat radiating off his body. As well as the heat that was coming from her cheeks and, embarrassingly, a pit in the bottom of her stomach. 

It was the end of the play, where they were reunited, and making love declarations. “Great,” Beatrice thought to herself, “I hope Hero doesn’t hear about this.”

In the script, Ben’s speech was first, and the entire time she could feel his eyes on her. Beatrice kept her eyes glued on the book in front of her. The entire time her mind was telling her to look up, but the minute she forced her head up she could tell it was a mistake. There was something in Ben’s eyes that scared her. He finished, and there was pause before she realized it was her turn to speak. Bea quickly cleared her throat and looked back down at the page. She began reading without noticing just how much this girl was pouring out her heart. 

Her eyes began tugging upward of their own accord to glance at Ben. On a whim, she grabbed his hand as she read the last lines.

“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”

Just as quickly as the moment began, it ended. Bea snatched her hand away and immediately broke eye contact.

Of course her misery couldn’t be over yet. The very next scene was that of a wedding. They both kept any passion out of their voice, but it didn’t matter, because they soon got to the part where the characters kiss. Marlow wasn’t incredibly attached to stage directions, so it didn’t explicitly state a kiss, but Bea knew, and Ben knew, and the whole class knew, that the end of a wedding features the happy couple kissing. The difference was that neither of them were happy, and they were not a couple.

Lunch was not going to be fun. She hoped no one heard about the incident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you guys enjoy this! I even already started writing the next chapter. I realized I hadn't written anything all summer, and I wanted to get at least something in before school starts in less that a week (AAAHH). So yeah, please tell me what you think, hopefully I won't take as long between updates as I did this time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some tension is in the air, and might possibly get resolved.

Everyone heard about the incident. 

Hero pulled her over in the hall after fourth period. “What happened in English today? Pedro said you and Ben had some weird moment thing.”

“It was not a weird moment thing! Nothing happened; and Pedro wasn’t even there!”

“Yeah, but he heard it from Meg. Who heard it from everyone because she is constantly texting everyone.”

“Look, nothing happened. Besides, since when is Meg a reliable source? She’s always over-dramatic.”

“I guess you’re right…”

“Now c’mon, let’s go get lunch. I’m starving.”

“Okay…”

But everyone at lunch obviously wanted to know what happened. They gave pointed looks at the both of them, and were very deliberate that they were expecting something from them. Finally, it got to be too much for Beatrice to handle. She stood up on the bench and yelled, “NOTHING HAPPENED! Now stop staring at me,” she slumped back down. “It’s making me nervous.”

It was Pedro who, in a moment of stupid bravery, delivered the blow that broke the camel’s back. “Is it making you nervous because you don’t want to admit something?”

“Why don’t any of you believe me? We’re supposed to be friends! I don’t want to talk to any of you!” And with that she stormed off. 

Not sure where exactly she was going, Bea just kept going. It only took a few seconds for her to realize she forgot her backpack, but her pride wasn’t about to allow her to go back and get it. When she finally stopped she realized she was at the same tree where the fatal incident from only two weeks ago had occurred.

Two weeks. She couldn’t believe it had been that short of a time. Her thoughts were all scrambled now. Beatrice collapsed at the base of the tree, head in her hands. She was adamant, even in her head, that she would not admit that she liked Ben. Maybe that was her problem. It could make her feel free. But this was the same boy she had hated for years. And she was not nearly strong enough to be subjected to her own feelings.

All of these thoughts were running around in her head. It was like a marathon between different parts of herself, but no rules had been laid out; creating a free-for-all inside her brain that was subsequently torturing her. 

With all of this consuming her, she almost didn’t notice Ben until he was right in front. She panicked and began to flusteredly stand up when he motioned for her to sit and plopped down next to her.

And they sat there. Awkwardly.

In an attempt to break the heavy silence, Ben thought hard for something to say. Finally he cleared his throat and simply said, “I brought your backpack.”

Beatrice glanced up at him and immediately back down at the dirt at her feet. “Thanks.” To her credit, she managed a small smile. 

Meanwhile, Ben finally seemed to manage to think of something to say. “Bea, I know...I know you don’t want to talk about it, but something did happen. And we can’t just keep going like this. We can’t not talk to each other. And we can’t really go back to the way we were before either because we’ve changed.” And that’s where he started panicking, “I mean, I’ve changed at least. I’m not trying to speak for you or anything but...yeah. Sorry.”

It was a long, torturous moment for Ben before she finally answered.

“You don’t have to be sorry. And...I guess you’re right. Ugh. Who would’ve thought I would be saying that, ‘Ben, you’re right.’ But you are. I feel different. I feel...weird. And I know that’s not very helpful but it’s the best I can do right now.”

“Bea, that’s okay. I mean, trust me, I feel weird too. But I also feel some other things. Like, not hatred.”

“Thank you. Not hatred. That’s a real compliment.”

“Listen, Beatrice, I--”

And that’s when her body decided to work against her own will. Because as she was sitting there, listening to him, watching his face contort into humorous positions, and all she could think about was how cute Ben is when he’s nervous.

Beatrice grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him toward her. This was even better than the first time. Her fingers curled around the small hairs on the back of his neck as their lips met confidently. Then Beatrice remembered that she just pounced on him. She reluctantly (about the same amount of reluctance it takes for her to admit that she was so reluctant to stop kissing him) pulled away. She met his eyes, and Ben smiled back at her, his blue eyes sparkling at her. And this time it was him who pulled her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure what to do afterwards, so I kind of just ended it here. I totally messed up the notes last chapter, I'm still kind of getting used to the posting format of the archive. I really hope everyone enjoyed it! I'm sorry I didn't post for so long, but now you have the whole story to enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not gonna lie, I actually don't know where I'm going with this. We'll see what the next chapter is, and when it gets posted because I honestly don't know. I hope you like it though!


End file.
